Virtuality

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Rating 3


Created by Ronald D Moore and Michael Taylor

Written by Michael Taylor, based on a story by Ronald D Moore and Michael Taylor

Directed by Peter Berg

Starring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Frank Pike), Clea DuVall (Sue Parsons), Kerry Bishé (Billie Kashmiri), Sienna Guillory (Rika Goddard), James D’Arcy (Roger Fallon), Erik Jensen (Jules Braun), Ritchie Coster (Jimmy Johnson), Nelson Lee (Kenji Yamamoto), Joy Bryant (Alice Thibadeau), Omar Metwally (Adin Meyer), Gene Farbar (Val Orlovsky), José Pablo Cantillo (Manny Rodriguez), Jimmi Simpson (Virtual Man) and Kari Wahlgren (Jean – voice only)


The Phaeton is a scientific starship on a ten year journey to the Epsilon Eridani star system. It is approaching Neptune, the point of no return, where the crew can use the gravitational pull of the planet to either catapult the ship onwards towards its intended destination or back towards Earth. Since their departure from Earth six months earlier, scientists have calculated that the planet will continue to support human life for less than a century and the original mission is now altered to locate a new planet for human habitation.

The on-board psychologist Dr Roger Fallon has created a system of virtual reality modules, allowing crew members to assume different identities and engage in adventures in a variety of environments, designed to combat the psychological effects of being confined in the spaceship for such a long length of time. He is also the director of a reality TV programme, ‘Edge of Never: Life on the Phaeton’, which is broadcast by the Fox Broadcasting Company back on Earth and attracts billions of viewers. However, an unidentified glitch in the virtual reality modules allows a dangerous and malevolent figure existing outside of the constraints of the programming to invade the fantasy worlds of the various crew members.

...


‘Virtuality’ is the feature-length pilot for an intended Fox network television series that was not commissioned. The pilot was broadcast on the Fox network in June 2009. I came across it because of Clea DuVall, who I like very much. I was largely unfamiliar with the rest of the actors. I watched it without knowing anything about the premise, apart from seeing one promotional picture of the cast.

I have a love hate relationship with science fiction. I grew up watching ‘Doctor Who’ and reading Isaac Asimov. Before I reached my teenage years I had read the C S Lewis space trilogy and these had a huge impact on me. There was a time when the third and final part, ‘That Hideous Strength’, would have counted as my favourite book. I guess I started to grow out of love with sci-fi (or, at least, some of it) in the years following ‘Star Wars’. I detest that film and I don’t like a lot of the science fiction and related film and television that has come since. Generally speaking, I just seemed to lose my love of it as I got older. This is not to say that I have turned my back on the genre altogether. I still watch ‘Doctor Who’ and there have been plenty of sci-fi films post ‘Star Wars’ that I like – ‘The Thing’, ‘Starman’ and ‘Event Horizon’ are three examples that immediately come to mind.

I have become less interested in television sci-fi over the years. I watched ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’ for a while and occasionally ‘Deep Space Nine’, but not ‘Voyager’ and ‘Enterprise’. ‘Babylon 5’ never caught my imagination and I have ignored the likes of ‘Earth: Final Conflict’ and ‘Andromeda’. I did watch the whole of the short-lived ‘Firefly’, but came away from it decidedly underwhelmed and I remain equally mystified by the critical acclaim afforded to ‘Battlestar Galactica’. Although I long ago stopped taking seriously the conspiracy theorists who believe in Roswell and recovered alien technology, I do have a soft-spot for alien abduction fiction, be it ‘The X Files’ or television movies like ‘Visitors of the Night’. It is not the science I am interested in, it's the fiction.

The bottom line is probably simply that a lot of sci-fi seems to be based around liberarian concepts and I tend veer more towards a slightly unfocused and ambivalent socialist archetype, not that I am in any shape or form an expert on such matters.

I approached ‘Virtuality’ was a degree of trepidation, not really expecting to like it. I struggled for the first ten minutes or so, wondering if I was going to make it through the whole thing. ‘Alien’ seems to be the template that virtually all subsequent sci-fi adheres to and there is nothing here that is not already very familiar. My initial impression, one that stuck with me to some degree or other right up to the end, was that I was watching a hybrid of ‘Silent Running’, ‘Alien’, ‘Event Horizon’ and ‘Firefly’ – the latter compounded by the opening scenes in which a small Union army troop attacks a Confederate army camp – the virtual reality fantasy of the ship’s commender.

In spite of my doubts, I found myself becoming more intrigued as the reality television concept was introduced. A convincing aura of unease beneath the surface was introduced, a sense that something is not right and the boundaries between reality and fantasy are already becoming blurred. The story began to set up some interesting concepts, although obviously the virtual reality plot is taken directly from ‘Star Trek: Next Generation’, ‘Total Recall’ and probably lots of other sci-fi that I don’t know about or have forgotten about. The glitch in the programming is straight out of the regular holodeck malfunctions in ‘Next Generation’.

‘Virtuality’ simply sets the scene for the intended television series and ends at what is, effectively, a starting point. As such, it does not really work as a movie. However, the conclusion left me hooked and wanting more, the first time this has happened watching the pilot of an (intended) American television series in quite some time. It’s a shame it failed to launch, so to speak.

Ronald D Moore and Michael Taylor, the creators of ‘Virtuality’ and writers of this pilot, both have prior connections to ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Battlestar Galactica’.

Review posted 31 August 2009



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Desperate Romantics

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Rating 4


Written by Peter Bowker, based on the book ‘Desperate Romantics: The Private Lives of the Pre-Raphaelites’ by Franny Moyles

Directed by Paul Gay (episodes 1, 2 and 3), Diarmuid Lawrence (episodes 4, 5 and 6)

Starring Aidan Turner (Dante Gabriel Rossetti), Rafe Spall (William Holman Hunt), Samuel Barnett (John Everett Millais), Sam Crane (Fred Walters), Amy Manson (Elizabeth Siddal), Jennie Jacques (Annie Miller), Tom Hollander (John Ruskin), Zoë Tapper (Effie Ruskin / Effie Gray Millais), Dyfrig Morris (William Morris), Peter Sandys-Clarke (Edward Burne-Jones), Natalie Thomas (Jane Burden), Rebecca Davies (Fanny Cornforth), Poppy le Friar (Rose la Touche), Mark Heap (Charles Dickens), Ian Puleston-Davies (Mr Siddal), Polly Kemp (Mrs Siddal), Josie Farmiloe (Charlotte Siddal), Philip Davis (Frank Stone)


‘Desperate Romantics’ is a bawdy and exuberant six-part BBC television drama that tells the story of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, the art movement founded in London in 1848. Keeping its tongue firmly in its cheek much of the time, it plays rather like ‘Carry On Pre-Raphaelites’.

Concentrating on the movement’s three founders, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, it is told through the eyes of a wholly fictional character, Fred Walters. All other main characters are based on real people (with the possible exception of Charlotte Siddal, who I do not know about and who, in any case, plays a small role here).

The series, written by Peter Bowker, whose previous work includes a brilliant updating of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Miller’s Tale’, plays fast and loose with the truth, but almost everything represented here is based on fact, even if the timelines are distorted for dramatic effect. One small example of this is the reference made to ‘A Child’s World’ (aka ‘Bubbles’), the painting by John Everett Millais that was first exhibited in 1886 and created some controversy during the artist’s lifetime because of its use in a long-running advertising campaign for Pear’s transparent soap. Despite the appearance of an early draft of this work in ‘Desperate Romantics’, the series actually ends some seventeen years earlier in 1869 when Dante Gabriel Rossetti had the body of his wife and muse Lizzie Siddal exhumed so that he could retrieve a small journal of poems he had placed in the coffin.

The six one hour episodes are tremendous fun and pass by quickly – the melancholy concluding episode ends on just the right note of irreverence. The cast is as near to perfect as it is possible to get and there are some fabulous performances. There has been some talk of a second season, which would certainly be possible by drawing on the lives of other later members and associates of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. The possibility is enticing and the ending of the final episode does seem to suggest an open door for the future, but it would have a lot to live up to and I would not wish the energy and high spirits of these first six episodes to be dampened.

‘Desperate Romantics’ inspired me to revisit the work of Rossetti, Hunt and Millais and that is probably the biggest compliment I can give it.

Review posted 29 August 2009



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In the Loop

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Rating 4

Directed by Armando Iannucci

Written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, with additional material by Ian Martin

Starring Peter Capaldi (Malcolm Tucker), Tom Hollander (Simon Fowler), Chris Addison (Toby Wright), Gina McKee (Judy), Paul Higgins (Jamie MacDonald), Anna Chlumsky (Liza Weld), Zach Woods (Chad), Mimi Kennedy (Karen Clarke), James Gandolfini (Lt General George Miller), David Rasche (Linton Barwick), Enzo Cilenti (Bob Adriano), Johnny Pemberton (A J Brown), Steve Coogan (Paul Michaelson), James Smith (Michael Rodgers), Olivia Poulet (Suzy) and Alex Macqueen (Sir Jonathan Tutt)


Simon Fowler, the hapless Minister for International Development, remarks that war in the Middle East is “unforeseeable” during a radio interview, incurring the wrath of the Rottweiler-like Malcolm Tucker, the Prime Minister’s Director of Communications and Strategy. His statement is seized on by a visiting US political delegation and he becomes the pawn in the Machiavellian scheming of the pro-war and anti-war factions, both in Washington and Westminster.

...


‘In the Loop’ is a 2009 feature film spin-off from the BBC television series ‘The Thick of It’, which began in 2005. The film is a satire on Anglo-American politics and specifically the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. It’s a kind of anti-‘The West Wing’, stripping away the supposed glamour and integrity of politics, as depicted in that acclaimed American television series.

The British Prime Minister does not feature and when he is mentioned, the impression is given that Malcolm Tucker (who is closely based on Alastair Campbell, Tony Blair’s Director of Communications and Strategy between 1997 and 2003, who wielded enormous political power, despite being unelected) makes statements and decisions said to be on behalf of the Prime Minister without actually consulting him. At one point, he says, “I have spoken to the Prime Minister... Whether it’s happened or not is irrelevant.” This is one of the few times when Tucker speaks without spewing a succession of profanities. The air is blue with swearing from start to finish in this film. After the initial radio broadcast that sets the chain of events in motion, Tucker says, “This is the Minister of International Development here, he should be talking about food parcels, not fucking arse-spraying mayhem.”

Scarier than Tucker is Jamie MacDonald, one of his junior colleagues, who says of himself, “You know me, Malc, kid gloves... but made from real kids,” and at one point asks Toby Wright, Fowler’s hapless aide, “You want me to hole-punch your face?” British politics is presented as being run by a handful of unelected Downing Street officials, sociopathic thugs who terrorise the various Ministerial departments, peopled by spineless incompetents, to ensure that everyone toes the Party line. In other words, it is an accurate depiction of what went on under Tony Blair’s premiership, particularly during the years up to the resignation of Alastair Campbell in 2003 during the Hutton Inquiry into the death of the Ministry of Defence biological weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

Both sides of the American political spectrum are seen to manipulate the hapless and star-struck British, using the British delegation to Washington in an attempt to out-manoeuvre one another. In the meanwhile, Malcolm Tucker cuts a bloody swathe through all parties, spewing his obscenities and weaving his Machiavellian plots, only to also become a victim of American plotting, caught up as he is in his own self-defeating arrogance. As the anti-war Lt General George Miller tells him, “You might be some scary little poodle-fucker over in England, but out here you’re nothing.”

‘In the Loop’ is without doubt the funniest film I have seen since the Coen brothers’ 1998 classic ‘The Big Lebowski’. It is also a brilliant portrayal of the machinations of Tony Blair’s Downing Street officials and the true nature of the supposed “special relationship” with Washington.

The film has a 94% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes from 117 reviews. It had a worldwide box office gross of $5.2 million. The production budget has not been made public, but it received a £612,650 (a little over $1 million) contribution from the UK Film Council.

Review posted 29 August 2009



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Fragile (Frágiles)

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Rating 2¾


Directed by Jaume Balagueró

Written by Jaume Balagueró and Jordi Galcerán

Starring Calista Flockhart (Amy Nicholls), Richard Roxburgh (Robert Marcus), Yasmin Murphy (Maggie), Gemma Jones (Mrs Folder), Elena Anaya (Helen Perez), Colin McFarlane (Roy), Michael Pennington (Marcus), Daniel Ortiz (Matt), Susie Trayling (Susan), Ivana Baquero (Mandy) and Karmeta Cervera (Charlotte)


Amy Nicholls starts work as the night nurse at Mercy Falls Hospital for Children on the Isle of Wight. The hospital is in the process of being closed down and only eight children remain, cared for on the first floor of the old crumbling building. One of the children, Maggie, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, tells Amy about Charlotte, a “mechanical girl” she communicates with using letter blocks. Strange things happen and Amy becomes convinced Charlotte is real and that the answer lies on the second floor, which has been sealed off and unused since 1959.

...


This is the fifth film I have seen by the Catalonian director Jaume Balagueró, including one made for Spanish television, and although I would not claim he, as yet, by any stretch of the imagination, matches the best work of iconic American horror film directors like John Carpenter or Sam Raimi, I do really like what I have seen. In fact, if I think about it, I would have to consider Balagueró to be one of my favourite current film directors, although this is not something I had given much thought to up until now.

While watching the film I found myself thinking about ‘Don’t Look Now’, the cult 1973 horror film directed by Nicolas Roeg. The two films are not really similar, but there was something about ‘Fragile’ that reminded me of the earlier film and I couldn’t help but wonder if the horror genre will ever scale those heights again. Having said that, it is many years since I last watched ‘Don’t Look Now’ and perhaps I simply recall it through rose-coloured glasses. It is a film I must make a point of watching again sometime soon, both because it made a huge impact on me the first time I watched it and also to find out if it really is as good as I remember it being.

I enjoyed ‘Fragile’ very much. It follows the pattern of the other Jaume Balagueró films I have seen. His filmmaking style bears greater resemblance J-Horror than it does to, for example, the ‘Saw’ or ‘Hostel’ films. He does have an aptitude for building up a convincing level of unease and creepiness and that is particularly well captured here. He also has a penchant for using old Gothic buildings as a backdrop for his films. The setting, the tiny Isle of Wight, which is located just a few miles off the south coast of the English mainland, is a good one, although I suspect the film was actually made largely in the Catalan area of Spain.

The plot is quite simple and, as might be expected, the film covers well worn ground. The story takes place in winter time and the rainy setting does help to evoke a sense of isolation and melancholia, which benefits the narrative. One thing I did notice that pulled me straight out of the film was that up on the second floor of the hospital, which had supposedly been sealed off and unused for more than forty years, there were modern light switches. It was just a passing observation, but for some reason I could not put it out of my head and then found myself actually looking for other inconsistencies.

‘Fragile’ has a box office gross a little under $6.7 million. It does not seem to have been given a theatrical release in the UK or US.

Review posted 29 August 2009



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Flu Bird Horror

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Rating 1½


Directed by Leigh Scott

Written by Tony Daniel and Brian D Smith

Starring Clare Carey (Dr Jacqueline Hale), Lance Guest (Garrett), Sarah Butler (Eva), Jonathon Trent (Johnson), Rebekah Kochan (Lola), Bill Posley (Derrick), Brent Lydic (Gordon), Gabriel Costin (Porky), Calin Stanciu (Hank), Tarri Markell (Dr Giovanna Thomas), Serban Celea (Oscar Drake) and Bart Sidles (Counsellor)


Dr Jacqueline Hale diagnoses what she believes is a case of avian flu, the first case detected in North America, and shares her findings with Garrett, the local Park Ranger. In a remote area of forest, a group of teenagers from a juvenile remand facility, out there on a group-building exercise, are menaced by deadly bird-like creatures. A Government biological containment agency gets involved, intent on containing the threat using military means, and it becomes a race against time to rescue the survivors.

...


‘Flu Bird Horror’, which is also known as ‘Flu Birds’, caught my attention in the first place because of the title and then I noticed Clare Carey’s name amongst the cast list. She was one of the cast of the short-lived ‘Point Pleasant’, probably my favourite television series of the last five years, and ‘Jericho’. It was for this reason alone that I watched it.

I assumed this ludicrous film was going to be about the wildfire spread of a bird virus and the desperate efforts to contain the pandemic. To a certain degree, that is what happens, but more than that it is a nonsensical horror film about a bunch of thoroughly dislikeable teenagers being picked off one by one by a prehistoric-looking airborne monster – complete with a Government agent who appears to be the bad-guy from a Steven Seagal film. There is virtually no attempt to explain anything that happens and the plot is laughable. It would be unfair to say there are holes in the plot – the whole thing is just one gigantic chasm of preposterous absurdity. It is, in fact, a typical Sci-Fi Channel movie and the less said about some of the acting the better.

Some parts are actually quite effective and all in all I cannot deny quite enjoying the film on some level or other, although I do not intend this to be a recommendation. Anyone familiar with typical Sci-Fi Channel fare will know what to expect.

Review posted 29 August 2009



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In Her Mother’s Footsteps

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Rating 1¾


Directed by Farhad Mann

Written by Steven A Finly

Starring Emma Caulfield (Kate Nolan), David Orth (Bobby Nolan), Matreya Fedor (Emma Nolan), Daryl Shuttleworth (Detective Garcey), Jody Thompson (Gina Byrnes), Tracy Waterhouse (Janet Cuccini), Adrien Dorval (Lucas Portwell ) and Mackenzie Gray (Carl Brookes)


Kate Nolan learns that her estranged father, who she has not seen for many years, has died, leaving her a fortune worth eleven million dollars. He had also bought a large house for her, which he was in the process of renovating when he died. Kate moves into the house with her daughter Emma and husband Bobby, but soon she is having a serious of disturbing dreams and visions, suggesting a repeat of the breakdown she suffered when her first husband, Emma’s father, died three years earlier. Her fragile state of mind is further compromised when she accuses her dead father of committing several murders in the house and becomes the focus of the police investigation into the alleged crimes.

...


‘In Her Mother’s Footsteps’, which is also known as ‘Deadly Inheritance’, is a 2006 psychological horror mystery film made for the Lifetime Movie Network. The story covers very well worn ground and is told in an instantly familiar style. There is nothing here that has not been done many times before. The narrative is somewhat unfocused and both the screenplay and the direction would have benefited from being sharper. The twists and deceptions in the story are not particularly accomplished and the dénouement, if given too much thought, is silly and implausible.

Having expressed these criticisms, the film has the merits typical of Lifetime productions. It is easy and enjoyable to watch, avoids the pandering and nastiness that blights some horror films and psychological thrillers made for cinema or DVD release, and boasts a competent and watchable cast. The lead role is taken by the likeable Emma Caulfield, who was memorable in the role of Anya in seasons three through to seven of Joss Whedon’s acclaimed television series ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’. She was also excellent in the under-appreciated 2003 horror film ‘Darkness Falls’.

You know what you are going to get with a Lifetime film and there are rarely if ever any surprises in store. As such, potential viewers are likely to already know if ‘In Her Mother’s Footsteps’ would be for them. I make no great claims for it, but I wanted to watch it and I am glad to have had the opportunity to do so.

Review posted 23 August 2009



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The Lone Gunmen

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Rating 1½


Series created by Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz

Executive producers: Chris Carter, Vince Gilligan, John Shiban and Frank Spotnitz

The Lone Gunmen characters originally created by Glen Morgan and James Wong

Written by Nandi Bowe (1 episode), Chris Carter (1 episode), Colin Friesen (1 episode), Vince Gilligan (6 episodes), Thomas Schnauz (2 episodes), John Shiban (6 episodes) and Frank Spotnitz (5 episodes)

Directed by Carol Banker (1 episode), Rob Bowman (1 episode), Richard Compton (2 episodes), David Jackson (1 episode), John Kretcher (1 episode), Vincent Misiano (1 episode) and Bryan Spicer (6 episodes)

Starring Tom Braidwood (Melvin Frohike), Dean Haglund (Richard ‘Ringo’ Langly), Bruce Harwood (John Fitzgerald Byers), Stephen Sneddon (Jimmy Bond), Zuleikha Robinson (Yves Adele Harlow) and Jim Fyfe (Kimmy the Geek)


Melvin Frohike, John Fitzgerald Byers and Richard Langly are self-styled investigative journalists who run their own conspiracy theory newspaper called The Lone Gunman. They reluctantly recruit the endlessly enthusiastic but hapless Jimmy Bond, because he can help fund their newspaper, which is always in financial trouble, and frequently find themselves pitted against or working with the mysterious Yves Adele Harlow (anagram of Lee Harvey Oswald) when investigating the various cases they become embroiled in.

...


The Lone Gunmen were three recurring characters from the hugely successful Fox network television series ‘The X Files’. They made their first appearance in the season one episode ‘E.B.E.’ in February 1994. This episode was written by Glen Morgan and James Wong, who went on to make the ‘Final Destination’ films and the 2006 remake of ‘Black Christmas’. The characters proved popular enough to appear in 37 more episodes, right up to the concluding episode of the ninth and final season in May 2002. The Lone Gunmen also appear in the 1998 ‘X Files’ film ‘Fight the Future’.

‘The Lone Gunmen’ was a spin-off television series based around these three characters. It premiered on 4 March 2001, during the second half of the eighth season of ‘The X Files’. Thirteen episodes were made, but only twelve were broadcast, the first eleven and episode 13. The missing twelfth episode was included on the DVD box set, released in 2005. The closing episode ended on a cliff-hanger, with subsequent resolution to the story being provided in the season nine ‘X Files’ episode ‘Jump the Shark’. The pilot episode of ‘The Lone Gunmen’ is notable because it revolves around a plot hatched by a secret group inside the US government to hijack a Boeing 727 commercial passenger airliner and crash it into the World Trade Center in New York City. This rather eerily foreshadows the events of 9/11, six months later.

I was, at one time, an enthusiastic viewer of ‘The X Files’, from its pilot episode onwards. It was undoubtedly my favourite television series of the time and I think it would be fair to call it one of my favourite television series of all-time. However, I was losing interest by the time of the seventh season and I have only seen a handful of episodes from seasons eight and nine. I have still never seen the final episode. I liked the Lone Gunmen characters and was interested to hear that a spin-off series was in the pipeline, but having largely stopped watching ‘The X Files’, I didn’t pay much more attention. To the best of my knowledge, the series was never broadcast in the UK, although I have now belatedly had the opportunity to watch it, some eight years after it was cancelled.

I went in with reasonably low expectations, hoping to enjoy it, but not expecting great things. However, I still was not quite prepared for the pilot episode, which was, I thought, one of the worst things I’ve ever seen – at least from something that I actually wanted to watch and had hopes of liking. This pilot episode was directed by Rob Bowman, who directed 33 episode of ‘The X Files’ television series, plus the first ‘X Files’ film.

I was initially quite shocked how bad it was, but it did occur to that these likeable recurring characters , who worked so well when encountered only occasionally and briefly in ‘The X Files’, were simply not going to work as lead characters in their own series. The additional characters Jimmy Bond (from episode two onwards) and Yves Adelle Harlow were introduced, presumably with this in mind. Bond is a hapless dufus, a stooge for the lead characters. Harlow is so predictably pandering to fanboy fantasies and so ludicrous that she ultimately almost works, although my overriding memory of her is the silly walk – which I assume is supposed to signify that she is sophisticated, sexy, exotic and mysterious. Either that, or it was intended as a joke, which I would like to think was the case, but somehow doubt.

The episodes that follow the pilot are not much better and the series never really improves to any great degree, but by and large they do become easier to watch. I couldn’t make it through the whole of the eighth episode ‘Maximum Byers’, which was so unutterably awful that I gave up on it after twenty minutes or so, but for the most part I found it enjoyable enough, without ever losing sight of the fact that it was not actually very good. It owes more to the likes of ‘Remington Steele’ and the ‘Father Dowling Mysteries’ than it does to ‘The X Files’ or subsequent television series like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’.

‘The Lone Gunmen’ was easy to watch and I was probably predisposed towards it because I was already familiar with the three main characters, who I had liked in a television series I once watched with fervour. I don’t make any great claims for it, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy it – up to a point.

The pilot episode attracted 13.2 million viewers when it was broadcast on the Fox network on 4 March 2001. By the time of the final episode ‘All About Yves’, broadcast on 11 May 2001, this had dropped to 5.3 million, although the low point came with episode ten ‘Tango de los Pistoleros’, which was broadcast on 27 April 2001 and attracted just 3.9 million viewers

Vince Gilligan is the creator and executive producer of the acclaimed ‘Breaking Bad’ on the AMC cable television channel, which has recently been commissioned for a third season. John Shiban’s credits since ‘The Lone Gunmen’ include ‘Enterprise’ (part of the ‘Star Trek’ franchise), ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Legend of the Seeker’.

Review posted 18 August 2009




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Loch Ness

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Rating 3


Directed by John Henderson

Written by John Fusco

Starring Ted Danson (Dr Jonathan Dempsey), Joely Richardson (Laura McFetridge), Ian Holm (Water Baliff), Kirsty Graham (Isabel McFetridge), James Frain (Adrian Foote), Harris Yulin (Dr Mercer), Nick Brimble (Andy Maclean), Harry Jones (Wee Wullie), Keith Allen (Gordon Shoals), Philip O’Brien (Dr Abernathy) and John Savident (Dr Binns)


Dr Jonathan Dempsey was once a respected zoologist, but he destroyed his reputation when he became obsessed with a mission to track down the mythical Sasquatch (Bigfoot). He is now a laughing stock, teaching freshman college students in Los Angeles. He is sent to Scotland by his senior colleague Dr Mercer, ostensibly to conduct the necessary scientific research to disprove the existence of the Loch Ness monster, but in reality simply to be shot of him. He only consents to go because he is unable to keep up alimony payments to his former wife and is being pursued by her attorneys. Dempsey is met by his enthusiastic research assistant Adrian Foote, but it quickly becomes clear that he is not welcomed by the locals and that he is equally unhappy to be there. However, his cynical antagonism is slowly melted by Laura McFetridge, who owns the local pub and small hotel where he stays, and in particular by her young daughter Isabel, giving him back his belief in himself and his vocation.

...


I watched ‘Loch Ness’ a few times around the time of its initial release in 1996, probably once at the cinema and then subsequently on video and on television. Although, as I recall it, accurately or not, the film was met with unenthusiastic reviews by most critics, I enjoyed it. I was living in the north east of Scotland at that time and had visited Loch Ness and the Highlands more than once. Although I was born in England and to all intents and purposes am English, I do have some Scottish blood and there are occasions when it is very easy to conclude that Scotland is the greatest country on Earth, not least whenever I hear the stirring sound of the bagpipes or witness the majestic Highland landscape. ‘Loch Ness’ presents a rather chocolate-box version of Scotland, but no more so than, say, the classic 1945 Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger film ‘I Know Where I’m Going’, and it is an interpretation that is not entirely unrealistic. Watching it again recently, after a break of more than ten years, I was struck by how much I still enjoyed it.

This is a film about redemption. It doesn’t offer anything new and, indeed, succumbs to the frequently overly sentimental tilt of such films. However, there is a genuine sense of warm-heartedness about it and that is no bad thing. Although I was never a fan of ‘Cheers’ and no particular fan of the ‘Three Men and a Baby’ films, I do think Ted Danson is an easy actor to watch. There is also a strong supporting cast here, including several instantly recognisable faces, although eight-year-old Kirsty Graham, who winningly plays Isabel, does not seem to have continued to pursue an acting career.

Director John Henderson has worked primarily on television, most recently directing episodes of the ITV series ‘Ladies of Letters’ and, prior to ‘Loch Ness’, the acclaimed 1992 BBC adaptation of ‘The Borrowers’.

Review posted 16 August 2009



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Dollhouse

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Dollhouse: Ghost (season one, episode one)

Dollhouse: The Target (season one, episode two)

Dollhouse: Stage Fright (season one, episode three)

Dollhouse: Gray Hour (season one, episode four)

Dollhouse: True Believer (season one, episode five)

Dollhouse: Man on the Street (season one, episode six)

Dollhouse: Echoes (season one, episode seven)

Dollhouse: Needs (season one, episode eight)

Dollhouse: Spy in the House of Love (season one, episode nine)

Dollhouse: Haunted (season one, episode ten)

Dollhouse: Briar Rose (season one, episode eleven)

Dollhouse: Omega (season one, episode twelve)

Dollhouse: Epitaph One (season one, episode thirteen)


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Dollhouse: Epitaph One (season one, episode thirteen)

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Rating 2½


Created by Joss Whedon

Written by Maurissa Tancharoen and Jed Whedon, from a story by Joss Whedon

Directed by David Solomon

Starring Eliza Dushku (Echo/Caroline), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Harry J Lennix (Boyd Langton), Amy Acker (Dr Claire Saunders/Whiskey), Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Enver Gjokaj (Victor), Miracle Laurie (November), Reed Diamond (Laurence Dominic), Felicia Day (Mag), Adair Tishler (Iris), Chris William Martin (Griff), Zack Ward (Zone), Janina Gavankar (Lynn) and Warren Sweeney (Mr Miller)


The year is 2019 and Los Angeles is a post-Apocalyptic wasteland. A group of insurgents stumble across the abandoned but intact underground Dollhouse facility and begin to piece together the truth that the technology used in the Dollhouse became corrupted when it was allowed out of its controlled environment into the public domain and that it was then used by the Military as a way of creating instant armies, resulting in chaos and devastation.

…


The story goes something like this. It was announced that ‘Epitaph One’, the thirteenth episode of the first season of ‘Dollhouse’ would not be broadcast by the Fox network in the US. The reason subsequently given for this was that the network purchased thirteen episodes and these included ‘Echo’, the original pilot episode that was not broadcast and, instead, replaced by ‘Ghost’. Chunks of footage from that original pilot were eventually used in other episodes. However, so it seems, the Fox production company was required by contract to supply thirteen episodes for international distribution and include thirteen episodes on the DVD. Both Joss Whedon and consulting producer Tim Minear decided it was not appropriate to include ‘Echo’, so a new thirteenth episode ‘Epitaph One’ was made, with a lower production budget than the episodes that preceded it. This episode was broadcast by the Sci-Fi Channel in the UK as the concluding episode of the first season.

My first instinct having watched the episode was that Joss Whedon must have thought the show was not going to be renewed for a second season and used this additional episode as a way of providing a novel conclusion to the story, one that would undoubtedly give fans of the show plenty of material for discussion. This is pure speculation on my part, but if this was the case it would seem to have backfired because the Fox network has purchased another season. Alternatively, this episode might be an end point towards which the show will now take us in the season or seasons to come. I don’t believe this. The episode explains to us exactly how we get to this point and to do so again in protracted fashion would be a pointless journey with little or no dramatic resonance. It could simply be one of a number of different possible future scenarios. It is, after all, called ‘Epitaph One’. Or maybe it is just intended to be a kind of stand alone episode that will not necessarily feature in future storylines. The point is made that it does open up a number of different possibilities and perhaps this is where one of Joss Whedon’s great strengths as a storyteller lies. ‘Dollhouse’ in itself is not a complex narrative, but Whedon does have a knack of creating interesting tangled webs out of simple concepts. Whatever the full ins and outs of the reasons for the existence of ‘Epitaph One’, it has been the subject of some discussion amongst fans of Whedon’s oeuvre – and ‘Dollhouse’ has not as yet been universally taken to the hearts of all those who make up his core fan-base.

I disliked ‘Omega’, the twelfth and official concluding episode of season one, quite intensely. Although it was certainly not the weakest episode of the season, it seemed to sum up for me everything that I have disliked about the series so far. Although it has clearly improved following the shaky early episodes and it has a premise that I can fully understand some viewers becoming wrapped up in, I simply have not enjoyed it. I don’t find the premise interesting or thought-provoking enough to counteract my frequent loathing of the style of presentation, not that I struggled to get a grip on the sub-texts here. I had not planned to watch ‘Epitaph One’, but it was included in the “Watch This” section of the television guide in The Guardian newspaper, which I just happened to read a few minutes before the programme was about to start. It said, “It’s got to be one of the weirdest ways to end a first season… If you’ve had your doubts, this just might convince you to come back for more.” On the spur of the moment, I decided I would watch it, which perhaps suggests that I have not found the series quite as unappealing as I have claimed; I don’t know.

‘Epitaph One’ looks like every other post-Apocalyptic dystopian type television episode and film from ‘Bladerunner’ onwards. Rightly or wrongly, I was immediately put in mind of ‘Imposter’, the 2002 Gary Sinise film based on a Philip K Dick story. I am sure there are other better comparisons, but I am not an expert about these things.

Once the insurgents (if that is the right term for them) have found their way into the Dollhouse we begin to learn, through a series of retrieved memories, what happened. We observe a series of brief flashbacks to the regular cast of characters in the dying days of the Dollhouse when the technology is out in the open and out of control. There is nothing new here in the idea that technology in the wrong hands, particularly the hands of the Military, is a highly dangerous thing, especially when the motivation of those developing and owning it is greed for money and power and prestige. The concept of Topher Brink as a kind of Oppenheimer-like figure, an egotist who subsequently comes to agonise about the evil he has unleashed in the name of science worked better than I was inclined to suspect and this was certainly one of the more successfully presented episodes.

The episode makes good use of one of two regular characters, including a return for the old chief of security Laurence Dominic. I’m not sure what to make of the fact that the absence most of the time of Echo was not, from my point of view, in any way detrimental. In fact, I rather suspect the opposite is true, which perhaps is a clue to my generally very negative reaction to previous episodes. There is clearly a problem if I am not responding to the main character. Once again, as has been the case throughout, I was very impressed by Amy Acker. Her performance in this first season has been a highlight for me. Also amongst the cast here is Felicia Day, who featured in the seventh and final season of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and also worked with Joss Whedon in his Internet musical ‘Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog’ (which I have not seen and remain somewhat vague about).

Sadly, even though I generally responded much more positively to ‘Epitaph One’ than I had done to ‘Omega’, I found the ending exceedingly cheesy and all it succeeded in doing was remind me why I have not been impressed with the series so far. Once the episode was over and I began to give it more thought, I found myself picking holes in this episode and concluded that it wasn’t as good as I was perhaps going to give it credit for.

Does ‘Epitaph One’ convince me to come back for more? I don’t think so. ‘Dollhouse’ definitely has something, but, whether through pre-existing prejudice or not, that something does not seem to be for me.

Review posted 13 August 2009



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Dollhouse: Omega (season one, episode twelve)

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Rating 0

Created by Joss Whedon

Written and directed by Tim Minear

Starring Eliza Dushku (Echo), Olivia Williams (Adelle DeWitt), Fran Kranz (Topher Brink), Harry J Lennix (Boyd Langton), Amy Acker (Dr Claire Saunders), Tahmoh Penikett (Paul Ballard), Dichen Lachman (Sierra), Enver Gjokaj (Victor), Miracle Laurie (November), Alan Tudyk (Alpha), Angel Desai (Sophie Alvarez), Ashley Johnson (Wendy) and Mark Sheppard (Tanaka)

Alpha has infiltrated the Dollhouse and he escapes, taking Echo with him, also taking all of her old imprints. Paul Ballard is made an offer by Adelle DeWitt to work with Boyd Langton and help them to locate and rescue Echo.

...


There was a gap of thirty days between episodes eight and nine because I struggled to build up any enthusiasm to continue watching the show. I rather forced myself to watch the next two after that, but this time around, with just this last episode to go (not counting the thirteenth episode ‘Epitaph One’ – broadcast in the UK, but restricted to the DVD in the US), I was in danger of giving up altogether and not bothering to watch it. In the end, I had to really make myself to do it, two weeks after watching episode eleven. Clearly, I went into it with a biased outlook and there is no doubt that I am now reviewing my attitude towards the show, rather than the episodes themselves. I know this, but the fact remains that I simply have not enjoyed ‘Dollhouse’ very much and, whatever its merits, I really disliked this closing episode.

The story seemed to run out of steam before it even began and I found the final 25 minutes or so particularly excruciating to watch. The fractured narrative is now a clichéd and overused trick and the various twists and turns were so blatantly obvious and easy to guess in advance that I actually found them offensive. If I didn’t know better, I would think that Joss Whedon and writer/director Tim Minear were deliberately taking the piss out of their fan-base. I haven’t liked the acting of Dichen Lachman throughout the season and nothing changes here, although I wonder if it is the writing of her character rather than her acting per se. She wasn’t around for very long in this episode, so it didn’t really matter. Sadly, I thought Eliza Dushku’s performance was rotten much of the time, although generally speaking (the tenth episode aside) I think she has been okay in previous episodes, despite some reviews elsewhere to the contrary.

At one point, Adelle DeWitt says to Paul Ballard, “Yes, I thought that might wipe the smirk off your face.” I don’t know how she could tell, since that smirk seemed to be his default facial expression throughout all twelve episodes. To be fair, as annoying as I have found many of the characters from episode to episode, there are a some here that, over time, might develop in interesting ways - and Paul Ballard could be one of them.

I have not been impressed at all with some of the dialogue, but the very worst of it has been saved for this episode, including the truly horrible line, spoken by Echo, “I have 38 brains and not one of them thinks you can sign a contract to be a slave, especially now that we have a black president.”

Was the use of the Beck/Jon Brion version of ‘Everybody’s Got To Learn Sometime’ a deliberate nod to the obvious influence of ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’? I hope it was this and not just an indication that the show is so bereft of ideas that it is already resorting to becoming a pale carbon copy of its influences.

I struggled with ‘Dollhouse’ from the very start and although it did improve after the first few episodes, I found the final few increasingly annoying and difficult to watch. I didn’t find the premise particularly interesting or particularly clever. It certainly wasn’t difficult to comprehend and while I could follow the subtext with ease, I simply didn’t enjoy the episodes anywhere near enough to be bothered to give this much thought. Clearly, though, anyone who enjoyed the show and found the premise interesting would have got a lot more out of it than I did. My opinion is no more objective and trustworthy than the most zealous of Joss Whedon fans.

There is nothing particularly wrong with the show. I just don’t like it and I think it is a long ways short of the brilliance of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, Joss Whedon’s most obviously iconic work.

Viewing figures for ‘Dollhouse’ during its run on the Fox network in the US were not particularly impressive. The opening episode, broadcast on 13 February 2009, was watched by 4.7 million viewers. By the time of ‘Omega’, broadcast on 8 May 2009, this had dropped to 2.75 million. However, Fox announced rather unexpectedly that it had commissioned a second season of thirteen episodes, to premiere in September 2009. This is good news for fans of the show and Joss Whedon generally, but I cannot imagine at the moment that I will be watching.

Review posted 10 August 2009



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Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus

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Rating 1


Written and directed by Jack Perez (using the pseudonym Ace Hannah)

Starring Deborah Gibson (Emma MacNeil), Sean Lawlor (Lamar Sanders), Vic Chao (Seijo Shimada), Lorenzo Lamas (Allan Baxter) and Jonathan Nation (Vince)


Marine biologist Emma MacNeil is plotting the migration patterns of whales off the coast of Alaska using an experimental mini-submarine she has borrowed without permission. At the same time, a US Navy helicopter drops illegal sonar transmitters into the water causing the whales to panic and ram a submerged glacier. This frees a prehistoric shark (a Meglalodon) and giant octopus that had been frozen there, in the middle of a fight to the death, during an ancient ice age.

…


I watched this film for one reason and one reason only – it is called ‘Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus’. The film received a lot of attention following the online release of the trailer, which had over a million hits on both MTV and YouTube. Although intended as a direct-to-DVD release, the film has attracted enough publicity to be been given a limited theatrical release at a cinema in London’s West End.

At least two British film critics have compared it to the work of the cult 1950s film director Ed Wood, with one suggesting that it is even worse than ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’, which is often cited as the worst film ever made. Quite frankly, this is a rather hysterical reaction to a film that is clearly bad, but which is nothing more than a typical example of the kinds of films broadcast on the Sci-Fi Channel every week.

The story is preposterous, obviously, but it would seem to be loosely based on the 1955 monster movie ‘It Came from Beneath the Sea’. The special effects are appalling and often non-existent, indicating the lack of budget, but this doesn’t matter in the slightest. It is actually rather nice to watch a film that is not battered into submission by ten of million of dollars worth of tediously clichéd CGI effects. However, while there was the opportunity to make a virtue of this, instead we get visual effects that would have been an embarrassment in an old episode of ‘Lost in Space’ and no indication of imagination to make up for it. The acting is terrible, ranging from Lorenzo Lamas (who will be familiar to some viewers from ‘Falcon Crest’, ‘Renegade’ and ‘The Bold and the Beautiful’), who doesn’t even seem to be bothering to put in a performance, to Vic Chao, who utters every line of dialogue as if it is a Shakespearean soliloquy. Heading up the cast is Deborah Gibson, who will be better known to most of us as 1980s teen pop star Debbie Gibson.

There is one great moment when the shark leaps up thousands of feet out of the water to bring down a commercial passenger aircraft, but that aside, the film doesn’t have enough ambition to be anything but bad and it is not even bad enough to warrant genuine cult status. It seems to have no self-awareness at all. This is a pity, because it could have been fund to watch. Instead, it is just a typical example of mediocre direct-to-DVD fare of this ilk, of which there is already plenty.

Review posted 10 August 2009



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The Watch

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Rating 1½


Directed by Jim Donovan

Written by Ben Ripley

Clea DuVall (Cassie), Elizabeth Whitmere (Andrea), James A Woods (Rhett), Victoria Sanchez (Sophie), Morgan Kelly (Chad), Matthew Kabwe (Professor Bateman) and Robert Reynolds (Dr Miller)


As a young child, Cassie was abducted and locked in a cellar for two days before being rescued. Nineteen years later she is struggling to complete her psychology thesis. Having been given a thirty day extension, she takes a temporary job as a fire lookout in a secluded watchtower in the middle of a beautiful but remote forest. She is trying to overcome her fear of isolation, but she is soon haunted by fears from the past.

...


‘The Watch’ is a made-for-television film that was shot in Ontario in Canada and first broadcast on the Lifetime Movie Channel in the USA in March 2008. I like psychological horror films that aspire to being creepy rather than gory and I do have a soft-spot for Lifetime movies, but my main reason for choosing to watch this film was the presence of Clea DuVall in a lead role.

The film starts out reasonably well and although it does not offer anything new and, in fact, borrows heavily from Japanese horror films, it does create a nicely judged aura of creepiness. Unfortunately, it soon begins to succumb to borderline tedium. The eventual twist is not all that hard to guess and the ending is absolutely nonsensical, unless I am missing something obvious.

With a stronger script, sharper characterisation and a surer directorial hand, ‘The Watch’ could have been rather good. As it is, the film has its merits, particularly during the first 45 minutes or so, not least of which is the excellent DuVall, but ultimately I found it something of a disappointment.

Review posted 8 August 2009

Screencap taken from clea-duvall.net




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The Nameless (Los sin nombres)

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Rating 3


Directed by Jaume Balagueró

Written by Jaume Balagueró, based on the novel by Ramsey Campbell

Starring Emma Vilarasau (Claudia Horts de Gifford), Karra Elejalde (Bruno Massera), Tristán Ulloa (Quiroga), Carlos Lasarte (Santini), Toni Sevilla (Franco), Brendan Price (Marc Gifford), Jordi Dauder (Forense), Pep Tosar (Toni), Isabel Ampudia (Secretaria), Susana García Díez (Chica Piscina), Carmen Capdet (Monja), Jessica Del Pozo (Ángela) and Judith Tort (Ángela, aged five)

The badly mutilated body of a six year old girl is discovered and is identified as Ángela, the daughter of Claudia and Marc Gifford, who had been reported missing previously. Many years later, Claudia and Marc’s marriage having long since broken down, Claudia receives a mystifying telephone call from someone claiming to be her daughter. She contacts Bruno Massera, the police detective who originally investigated the case. He has just resigned from the police force and is initially sceptical of her claims, but after a strange video tape is sent to Quiroga, a young journalist on a trashy magazine, his unofficial investigations uncover evidence of a secret society dedicated to the search for evil in its purest form.

...


‘The Nameless’ (‘Los sin nombre’, or ‘Els sense nom’, to give the film its Catalonian title) is a 1999 horror film directed by Jaume Balagueró, whose other films include ‘Darkness’, which stars Anna Paquin in a pre-‘True Blood’ role, and the critically well received ‘[REC]’. Balagueró also wrote the screenplay, which is based on a 1981 novel by the celebrated English horror fiction author Ramsey Campbell, whose work has been compared to that of H P Lovecraft.

A large portion of the early part of the film plays like a downbeat study of one woman’s consuming melancholia and the impact of losing her young daughter in such horrific circumstances, but as the film continues it turns into a kind of gothic horror study of the worship of evil, almost in style of old Hammer Horror films like ‘The Devil Rides Out’. The premise bears comparison to Balagueró’s own ‘Darkness’ and one notable scene is clearly modelled on ‘Silence of the Lambs’. Clichés abound, but the film also manages to be creepy and establishes a genuine sense of paranoia.

I have now watched several films made by Jaume Balagueró and although I would say they tend to be flawed, they are never less than interesting and this is perhaps the best film of his I have seen to date.

Review posted 7 August 2009


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